Increased Success of Organ Transplants

For the last 25 years, organ transplants have been growing in the United States due to medical advances and the growing number of willing organ donors. Many people with severe conditions wait years to receive a healthy organ. This map shows the number of transplants performed in each state over the last 25 years as well as how many organs have been donated from each donors' state of residence, as not all organ donors reside in the same state as their recipients. The number of transplanted organs continues to surpass the number of donors across the nation. This indicates that while the number of donors has risen, so have the number of people requiring healthy organs.

Map Interaction

The slide bar at the lower left of the screen allows you to scroll through the last 25 years of organ donation and transplantation. When you move the mouse over each proportional symbol, an information window appears showing how many transplants were received by patients and how many organs were donated for each year for that state. Dropdown menus in the upper right will allow you to filter either the transplanted organs by type or select the donor type to compare the data for each state. The trends for each state are represented by green for the organs and blue for the donors. Zoom out to view Alaska and Hawai'i and don't forget about Puerto Rico too!

Organ Donors and Organ-izations

For patients waiting for a life-saving transplant, organ donors are their heroes. Communities of donors are growing every day. There are many organizations to help transplant patients and donors alike around the country. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) manages the nation's organ transplant system to help save lives every day. My data was collected from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), the website managed by the Health Resources and Services Administration working with UNOS to provide data, research, and eductaion about organ donoation and transplantation. Eventhough there has been an increase of transplants, donors are always needed. We can't thank them enough!